It was an important day for eHealth in Ireland, with a session on visioning the future of Healthcare and a serious look at the role of Electronic Health Records therein.

Having been asked to speak about my time as an Emergency Physician and a Clinical Lead for IT/CCIO in the NHS over a period of 10 years, I shared a few key lessons learnt.;

Healthcare pressures mounting in the 21st Century. Reference: ED Trolley Crisis in Ireland and the NHS Winter crisis earlier in the year.

Importance of Clinical Leadership, including doctors like myself to stand up and speak out about the need for change. With true clinical leadership goes some authority, not just responsibility.

The Integration Challenge in Healthcare, as the current system is far too fragmented with many siloes of people + process + info tech operating in isolation, resulting in a very challenging journey for patients to navigate, not to mention the quality, safety, cost and timeliness issues.

The advent and arrival of an Open Platform in Healthcare, which will have a profound effect on the health IT market and thereby in healthcare in this 21st Century.

Lastly to make the point that while “change is inevitable, progress is optional“. We have seen significant effort in the UK and US Healthcare settings with IT in recent years, but limited progress. To make greater progress in this field, it is up to us.

frectal

frectal is a place for to share some thoughts and ideas in a complex world.
Interests include healthcare, change, leadership, quality improvement, information systems, standards and the value of simple rules in a complex world
I hope some of these thoughts are helpful to others.